- Kenyan singer Matt Ngesa has released his debut nine-track album drawing from deeply personal life experiences
- Four of the album's songs were born during a frightening period when both his parents contracted COVID-19
- The project explores a theme rarely centered in Kenyan music - the relationships that quietly shape who we become
When Matt Ngesa's parents fell ill with COVID-19 during the pandemic, the uncertainty of those weeks left a mark that would eventually find its way onto record.
Source: UGC
The Kenyan singer-songwriter has now released his debut album, For the Road, a nine-track project that uses that difficult chapter as one of its key starting points.
Four songs on the album trace their origins to that anxious period, when Ngesa found himself writing through the fear of what might happen to his family.
Speaking to TUKO.co.ke, he explained how those songs gradually grew into something larger, eventually forming the emotional backbone of the full project.
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“Unlike much of what dominates the Kenyan music scene, For the Road steers away from conventional romance as its central subject.”
Instead, Ngesa turns his attention to the broader web of relationships — family, friendship, personal growth — that quietly determines who people become over time.
The album's guiding idea is perhaps best expressed through a line from the song August:
"Do what you love, with who you love, for who you love."
The nine tracks include Kintsugi, the last of which features artist Joy Ocholla.
Ngesa's sound sits at the crossroads of indie pop, rock and soul.
“My songwriting reflects a life lived across several places — born in Kenya, I grew up spending time in Uganda and the United States, and those shifting environments have fed directly into my perspective and music.”
He first began developing his craft within Soul Mind Scars, a band he put together alongside his sister, before eventually stepping out as a solo artist. The single Muse earned him a coveted slot performing on COLORS, the internationally recognised music platform.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
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